Judge skeptical of bid to block new S.F. gun law

Updated 5:04 pm, Tuesday, February 11, 2014

(02-11) 17:02 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The National Rifle Association challenged San Francisco's ban on high-capacity gun magazines in federal court Tuesday, arguing that it violates a constitutional right of armed self-defense in the home - but had little apparent success in persuading the judge.

In 15 years on the bench, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said at the outset of the hearing in San Francisco, "I see precious few cases where a homeowner has warded off an intruder with 10 or more bullets," but many cases in which criminals wielded large-capacity guns.

"You have zero evidence ... that these oversize magazines are used for common self-defense," Alsup told the NRA's attorney, Anna Barvir.

Barvir replied that at least than 75 million gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, which San Francisco would outlaw, have been sold in the United States. She said they are covered by the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., and declared a Second Amendment right for law-abiding citizens to own firearms that are in "common use" for self-defense.

Deputy City Attorney Christine Van Aken, defending San Francisco's ordinance, said a more common use of high-capacity guns is to kill large numbers of people.

Out of 69 mass shootings in the United States since 1982, she said, the killers have used large-capacity magazines in 85 percent of them. Such guns killed schoolchildren in Connecticut, Sikh worshipers in Wisconsin, movie-goers in Colorado and constituents talking with their congresswoman in Arizona, Van Aken noted.

These are weapons that pose a "special danger," Van Aken said - a category the Supreme Court excluded from Second Amendment protection in its 2008 ruling. She noted that all four federal courts that have considered similar laws have upheld them.

Alsup said he would rule at a later date on the NRA's request to block the ordinance from taking effect.

The San Francisco law, which the Board of Supervisors passed in November, requires owners of gun magazines that carry more than 10 rounds to surrender them to police by April 8. Alsup said he would rule at a later date on the NRA's request to block the ordinance from taking effect.

California law has prohibited sale of those magazines since 2000 but does not ban possession of weapons legally purchased before then. Voters in Sunnyvale passed a similar ordinance in November, which the NRA is challenging in a separate suit.

The suit before Alsup was filed on behalf of the San Francisco Veteran Police Officers Association and four individual gun owners. It argues that high-capacity magazines are "typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes" and that banning their legal possession would give "violent criminals an advantage."